tools News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 7, 2025January 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

FOSDEM 2025 schedule – Embedded, Open Hardware, RISC-V, Edge AI, and more

FOSDEM 2025 will take place on February 1-2 with over 8000 developers meeting in Brussels to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. The free-to-attend (and participate) “Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” grows every year, and in 2025 there will be 968 speakers, 930 events, and 74 tracks. Like every year since FOSDEM 2015 which had (only) 551 events, I’ll create a virtual schedule with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms including “RISC-V”, “FOSS Mobile Devices”, “Low-level AI Engineering and Hacking”, among others. FOSDEM 2025 Day 1 – Saturday 1 10:30 – 11:10 – RISC-V Hardware – Where are we? by Emil Renner Berthing I’ll talk about the current landscape of available RISC-V hardware powerful enough to run Linux and hopefully give a better overview of what to […]

January 3, 2025January 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ESP Offline Programmer flashes firmware to ESP32 and ESP8266 modules without PC

The ESP Offline Programmer is an ESP32 board with a microSD card slot designed to flash the firmware to other ESP32 or ESP8266 modules without a PC. You’ll still need one to copy the firmware to a microSD card, but once it’s done you can just insert the microSD card into the board and after wiring is done ideally using a jig, start the flashing sequence with the press of a button. In some ways, it’s the hardware equivalent of the esptool utility and can be useful for remote deployment where carrying a laptop may not always be convenient and potentially for flashing hundreds or thousands of modules using multiple ESP Offline Programmers in a way that’s faster than using computers. ESP Offline Programmer specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-WROOM-32E ESP32 dual-core Tensilica LX6 microcontroller Storage – 4MB flash Wireless 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity, built-in PCB […]

December 12, 2024December 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Lattice unveils Nexus 2 small FPGA platform, Lattice Avant 30 and Avant 50 mid-range devices, updated Lattice design software tools

Lattice Semiconductors announced several new FPGAs and software tools at the Lattice Developers Conference 2024 which took place on December 10-11. First, the company unveiled the Nexus 2 small FPGA platform starting with the Certus-N2 general-purpose FPGAs offering significant efficiency and performance improvements in this category of devices. The Lattice Avant 30 and Avant 50 were also introduced as mid-range FPGA devices with new capacity options to enable edge-optimized and advanced connectivity applications. Finally, the company releases new versions of Lattice design software tools and application-specific solution stacks to help accelerate customer time-to-market such for edge AI, embedded vision, factory automation, and automotive designs with Lattice Drive. Let’s have a look at the highlights of each announcement. Lattice Nexus 2 small FPGA platform and Certus-N2 FPGA Highlights and benefits of the Lattice Nexus 2 small FPGA platform: Power Efficiency against similar class competitive devices Up to 3x lower power Up […]

December 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

XIAO Powerbread is a breadboard power supply and meter based on XIAO RP2040 or ESP32 USB-C board

XIAO Powerbread power meter for breadboard

The XIAO Powerbread is a breadboard power supply and meter compatible with XIAO RP2040 or ESP32 USB-C boards and equipped with a color LCD display showing real-time voltage, current, and power consumption for 5V and/or 3.3V power rails. Breadboard power supplies are nothing new. We’ve written about several over the years including the Toaster board with adjustable voltage from 5 to 16V, the SwitchTrick switching power supply board, and the MEGO portable breadboard power supply with a built-in battery. The XIAO Powerbread only supports 5V and 3.3V power rails, but its main selling point is its integrated breadboard power meter function. XIAO Powerbread specifications: Supported USB-C modules General purpose MCU – XIAO RP2040, XIAO RP2350 WiFi / Bluetooth MCU – XIAO ESP32S3, XIAO ESP32C3, XIAO ESP32C6 Display – 0.96-inch color TFT LCD with 160×80 resolution and ST7735S SPI controller Power monitoring – 2x TI INA3221 sensors connected over I2C […]

November 4, 2024November 5, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 1 Comment

USB Insight Hub is an open-source, ESP32-S2-based tool for testing USB devices (Crowdfunding)

The USB Insight Hub is a USB testing tool based on the ESP32-S2 wireless SoC made by Ecuador-based company Aerio Solutions SAS and aimed at developers and tech enthusiasts. The Insight Hub connects to a computer via a USB Type-C port and expands it to three downstream ports, each with a 1.3-inch color display screen that displays information about the serial device such as its assigned enumeration name, voltage, and current. The enumeration name displayed helps to identify all virtual ports running through the Insight Hub. This feature is quite handy when multiple devices are connected. Although the hub features a Wi-Fi-enabled SoC, it doesn’t currently support wireless networking. Each downstream port is connected to a dedicated voltage and current meter for real-time feedback. Also, the hub implements configurable short-circuit, over-current, and back-current protection. It also allows you to control the individual activation and deactivation of the D+/D- data lines […]

October 29, 2024October 28, 2024 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

OpenUC2 10x is an ESP32-S3 portable microscope with AI-powered real-time image analysis

Seeed Studio has recently launched the OpenUC2 10x AI portable microscope built around the XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense module. Designed for educational, environmental research, health monitoring, and prototyping applications this microscope features an OV2640 camera with a 10x magnification with precise motorized focusing, high-resolution imaging, and real-time TinyML processing for image handling. The microscope is modular and open-source making it easy to customize and expand its features using 3D-printed parts, motorized stages, and additional sensors. It supports Wi-Fi connectivity with a durable body, uses USB-C for power and swappable objectives make it usable in various applications. Previously we have written about similar portable microscopes like the ioLight microscope and the KoPa W5 Wi-Fi Microscope, and Jean-Luc also tested a cheap USB microscope to read part number of components. Feel free to check those out if you are looking for a cheap microscope. OpenUC2 10x specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU […]

October 6, 2024October 5, 2024 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

Flipper Zero hacking tool gets MicroPython support

Developer and engineer Oliver Fabel has developed a port that is designed to run MicroPython on the Flipper Zero. This port allows users to write programs for Flipper Zero in Python, instead of built-in JavaScript. Till now you can access GPIO, ADC, PWM, the speaker, buttons, the display, and infrared communication with this but it doesn’t have support for NFC or RFID yet, and it’s still under development. Previously we have written about various addon boards for the Flipper Zero like the Mayhem v2, the ESP8266 Deauther board, the CAN bus addon board, and other powerful alternatives of the Flipper like The M1 and the HackBat. Feel free to check those out if you are interested in the topic. The process is simple, and you don’t have to do a firmware update to work with MicroPython, you can download the application from the community-driven Flipper app store and are good […]

August 27, 2024August 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

platform-espressif32 fork to enable PlatformIO support for ESP32-C6, ESP32-C5, ESP32-H2, and ESP32-P4 SoCs

PlatformIO ESP32-C6 ESP32-C5 ESP32-P4 ESP32-H2

When Espressif Systems released Arduino ESP32 Core 3.0.0 we noted that PlatformIO support was in doubt due to business issues between Espressif and Platform IO developers. There has been no progress since then, and PlatformIO is not even reviewing or merging community contributions to their platform-espressif32 library. So if you want software that’s officially supported by Espressif, you should stick to the Arduino ESP32 Core. But if you are a fan of PlatformIO for ESP32, there’s hope even for the newer chips like ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2, and ESP32-P4 among others, as pioarduino community members have now forked the platform-espressif32 library to keep the project alive. Users can still rely on the official PlatformIO repository for existing ESP32 boards and microcontrollers, but new ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2, ESP32-C5, ESP32-H4, and ESP32-P4 SoC will only be supported by the fork. pioarduino which stands for “people initiated optimized arduino” will maintain the fork, and currently, Arduino […]